If It's Not Scottish...

Just a quick note:  I fired-up another batch of beer for The Highest Holy Day of Most Extreme Magnitude.  I have 2 taps on my kegerator, after all, and The High Holy Day is on a Saturday this year, so I do anticipate a good deal of beer consumption at this year's annual Smitty St. Patrick's Day Celebration!

Allow me to digress; for those of you closest to Clan Smitty - namely, most of the contributors here - the annual feast of beer and authentically-Irish-themed food is Saturday March 17 (of course) from 5:00 on.  Email invitations being sent shortly.  For our extended ATK family, you're welcome to come.  I just can't cover your airfare.

Where was I...oh, right.  Beer.

I brewed a Scottish "80 shilling" ale.  Sure, it's not an Irish Red or a Guinness clone (I would never defile Guinness by trying to clone it), but hey...the Scots are kindered spirits right?  It is Jennifer's current favorite in my repertoire, so it pleases me to keep an ample supply on-hand for her enjoyment.  It tends to be malty-sweet and grainy with ne'er a hint a hops.

This brew day, I had to fly solo.  It doesn't add much time to my brew day - maybe just an additional half hour or so - but it does get lonely.  During the mash and part of the boil, I have time to play with the kids.  They also really enjoy helping me crack the grains in the grain crusher, but I still have a total of about 2 1/2 where I am tied-up cleaning, rinsing, sanitizing, sparging, dumping, boiling, adding stuff, cooling and pitching.  Lots of busywork, but Mrs. Smitty doesn't mind if I give her ample warning and the kids are OK for a couple hours playing amongst themselves.  I don't need to be up their asses every minute.

Scottish 80 Shilling:
-- 9 lbs British Golden Promise
-- 1 lb. English Medium Crystal
-- 1 oz U.S. Fuggle (60 minutes)
-- Wyeast 1728:  Scottish Ale

Sacch' Rest:  153 degrees for 60 minutes
Mashout:  170 degrees for 10 minutes

That's it, people.  This recipe is that simple, and it is really quite malty-tasty with a tad of grain for character.  This is a massively sessionable beer, coming in right around 5% abv.  No hops to dry the tongue, not so malty it's cloying.  It is everybeer in everypub in Scotland.  And it's on tap at Smitty's Pub on March 17!